Sacramento Running News

The internet and email was burning up today as the New York Times ran a story about runner Christian Hesch admitting to using performance enhancing drugs.

Then came the Runners World Newswire story that was a considerably more critical and provided a little more background information.

Christian Hesch could best be described as a dominate local runner, living in Southern California, so why is this important to us in Sacramento?

If you’re a competitive racer, even an age-grouper, the odds are good he has cheated you personally. I looked him up in Zinsli’s database and found Hesch has regularly competed in local and regional Pacific Association USATF races.

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It looks like the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) is taking a closer look at masters athletes, having suspended nine already in 2011.

The Associated Press has a story on the USADA’s new focus on masters athletes. As a masters athlete myself, I am personally pleased to see this new scrutiny of my fellow competitors.

Obviously, there are other opinions. Some athletes feel that it doesn’t matter what masters athletes do because there isn’t any money in masters athletics.

All the same, if I’m out there busting my butt in the hunt for an age group placing, I’d like to assume the other guys I’m racing against are all playing from the same rule book.

Since I’m not above naming names, I took a peek at the USADA’s press releases for 2011 and extracted the following list of master track and field athletes who were sanctioned for some doping violation. (more…)

We are in the heart of the fall marathon season and there are many stories to choose from! Here is a sample from around the world.

Major

This past weekend was the Bank of America Chicago Marathon where Ryan Hall was due to a) win, b) set an American Record, and/or c) set a course record.

Unfortunately for Ryan Hall, there were some other fast guys out there on the course, too.  After hanging with the lead pack for 14 miles, Hall faded to 5^th (no small thing there!) and Kenyan Moses Mosop was the one to (barely) set a new course record of 2:05:37.

Liliya Shobukhova of Russia was the women’s three-peat champion, with a smoking fast 2:18:20. This is the 4^th fastest marathon time ever by a woman.

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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote here about drug testing for the upcoming World Masters Athletics Championships that will be held this month in Sacramento.

It was nice to see in this morning’s Sacramento Bee, Sam McManis giving it the full treatment. McManis does an excellent job of picking through the various facets of the issue.

The money quote from elite masters runner Pete Magill:

“Like it or not, the perception of drug use among all athletes is out there,” he said. “It’s important that, as a group, we submit to drug testing to fight that perception. Any time now anyone has a great performance, the first thing people think is not, ‘That’s a great performer.’ They think, ‘That guy has a great pharmacist.’ “

I couldn’t agree more. It’s a definite “must read.”